Saving Grace
by keelhaulrose
Summary: When a night out doesn't go to plan Hermione's boyfriend makes a rather startling confession


**I'm going to be dumping a bunch of fics today. They were all written for the Hermione's Haven #HHBingo19 event. If you do not follow me on AO3 I would suggest going over there sometime, most of these fics have artwork accompanying them there.**

**This was square I4: Hermione/Gabriel**

Hermione stared at the three dead bodies in shock. The one closest to her hand his arm extended towards her, the final unspoken plea for help of a desperate man who knew he was dying. The Dark Mark showed prominently on his forearm even in the darkness of the quiet street. She inadvertently stepped backwards, then she looked up at the man standing ten feet in front of her. He looked at her, concern deep in his eyes, but didn't come closer.

"Gabriel..?" she whispered softly, a thousand questions on her lips, but none would come forth.

"They were going to kill you," he replied.

"I know, but they're dead," she finally found her voice. "How are they dead?"

"It's hard to live very long without lungs," he muttered, anger in his voice.

"Without lungs?" she repeated, her voice barely audible. "How did they…? How did you…? All you did was…" she reached out and snapped in front of her.

He sighed deeply. "I'll tell you, but please, listen to all of it. I've never lied to you, but I have omitted some rather significant truths. Can you listen before you judge?"

She looked down at the dead bodies but nodded once.

"You know who I am," he said softly.

"I thought I did…"

"You know," he interrupted firmly. "You've read everything put in front of you since you were three. You read my name on pages before. You've heard my name spoken from pulpits when you were younger and that sort of thing still held a bit of hope in your chest. You thought my name during your time on the run, and it was then you decided that everything everyone had ever taught you about me and my kind was fantasy, and that reality was much colder and harder."

Realization dawned on her face, but she shook her head. "You can't be, they're not real…"

At that moment a pair of headlights flickered on in the distance. A gasp escaped her lips as she saw the shadow of wings cast on the wall behind him in the dim light before the lights flickered one more time and went out.

She sunk to the ground in disbelief, but it wasn't the wet pavement that came up to meet her, but the plush carpet in her own apartment. If the sudden change of scenery surprised her she didn't react, though a tear started slowly trailing down her cheek.

"Everything you ever said about your brothers…" she looked up at him.

"True, though downplayed a few thousand degrees," he replied with a half smile.

"And your father!" her eyes went wide.

"It would be the most awkward meet the parent if he were still in the picture."

She bit her lip as she processed what he had left unspoken. Her shoulders began to slump as the adrenaline from their encounter with the now dead Death Eaters waned and the weight of her new reality began to settle on her. Cautiously he moved closer to her, settling onto her coffee table in arms reach but not touching her though he desperately wanted to comfort her in that moment.

"I don't understand," she finally muttered to the floor. "Why me? Why this? Why us?"

He sighed. "All the things we've been talking about lately? All the stuff going on? Two flannel-clad chuckleheads managed to set the apocalypse in motion. My bros are back in town. I've been hiding for a very long time, but those two and their pet angel figured me out, so it's probably only a matter of time before I'm dragged back into this mess, and since I'm not about to fight for either of them I'm sure it won't be long after that they're trying to kill me. Not too long ago that wasn't all that distressing of a thought. The problem with knowing you're dying is you've got time to think about it. Against my better judgement I did, and I realized that if I died no one would really care. No one would mourn. My name would be spoken millions more times by men who know nothing about me, and that's the only remembrance I would ever get. I don't know why that thought bothered me, but it did enough that I sought someone out, anyone out, who might give two shits about me when I'm gone, and that's when I came across this magical book store run by an extraordinary woman. I hadn't expected things to go as far as they have with us, really, what I wanted most was someone to talk to who had no motive, and you provided that without hesitation. You cared about me without judging me, you're the first person who has ever said that running away was okay, that turning my back on my family was a good idea, that I deserved to be free of things that have been weighing on me since before life even existed. I didn't know how badly I needed to hear those things. And I didn't realize how much I might come to care about the person who said them."

Very slowly and gently he reached over to place his fingers under her chin and lift her face so he could look into her eyes. She blinked a few times, a few tears escaping down her cheeks, but she kept her eyes locked on his.

"I didn't know it was possible for me to love another being the way I love you until I had already fallen," he muttered. "There is nothing in this or any other world that matters to me more than you right now, and I would do _anything_ to protect you. When I realized those Death Eaters were coming, when I realized how _horribly_ they intended you and I to die, I thought of a million different ways to destroy them, each one bringing the pain and torment they intended to inflict on you back to them a thousand fold. But you were next to me, and I know that even if they had hurt you that you would want them dead quickly and mercifully, but I couldn't turn all of that part of me off. I couldn't make it too easy. They died much quicker than they would have had I done what I really wanted to do to them, but they still knew and still felt some of the pain they had intended for you."

"I never want to see anyone die like that again," she whispered. "It was awful."

"Never again," he nodded. "I promise. But I'm not going to promise I won't protect you. I'm going to, even against everything I know is coming right now. Even if you tell me to leave, like I know you want to."

"I don't…" she protested, but she stopped, because she suddenly realized she wasn't sure of the truth. Her heart was torn, her world was in shards around her, and for the first time in a very long time Hermione Granger had no idea what to do next.


End file.
